Playing tag on the grass or dining alfresco is great for boosting your mood, but not so great for your dry cleaning bills. Grass skids on your khakis, moldy beach towels and dingy tablecloths: dead giveaways of summer fun. All are side effects – and sometimes permanent reminders – of summertime fun. Still, why sacrifice your favorite clothes and linens? Follow our guide to keeping items clean and mold-free – naturally…

Perchloroethylene, a chemical solvents often used in dry cleaning, is classified as a carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency. It has been known to irritate the eyes, nose and throat and has also been linked to cancer. Trichloroethylene, found in some stain removers, has been connected to a variety of side effects, from skin rashes to liver damage.

To clean your clothes without chemicals, try these stain-removal ideas from Green This!:

1.Head for the Arm & Hammer. Make a paste out of baking soda and water, apply it to the stain and let it sit for an hour before washing.

2. Squeeze a lemon. Lemon juice contains citric acid; its bleaching action works especially well on white fabrics and sweat stains. Make a paste of lemon juice and baking soda and leave it on the stain for half an hour before washing.

3. Pinch the peroxide.Watered-down hydrogen peroxide – half peroxide, half water – also removes tough stains, even blood, from white fabrics. (Tip: One hundred percent peroxide is not sold in drugstores; instead it’s sold as a 3% solution – 3% hydrogen peroxide; 97% water. The 3% solution is what you want to mix equally with water… not the 100% solution.) This will work on most fabrics, but do a test spot first.

4. Dab, don’t rub. Always blot a stain before trying to remove it. Work from the edges to the center, which will keep the stain from spreading.

6.Oil or grease (e.g. from salad dressing) – Rub on dishwashing liquid and let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes before washing.

7.Grass – Use an old toothbrush to rub whitening toothpaste onto the stain. Let sit overnight, then wash.

8. Blood – Make a paste of cool water and meat tenderizer (unseasoned). Apply to the stain, then let sit 15 to 30 minutes before washing.

9. Ketchup – Soak a fresh stain in cool water for 10 minutes, rub in liquid detergent, then wash.

Icky Dilemmas

Moldy Towels10. Add a few drops of clove, lemon or eucalyptus essential oil to the rinse cycle, Imus suggests.

11. Rutherford recommends soaking the towel in distilled white vinegar, diluted with water for 10 to 20 minutes. Let your nose determine the formula: The nastier the mildew smell, the more vinegar (and less water) you’ll need. Then, machine wash in hot water and line dry.

Stinky Swimsuits12. In a perfect world, you would rinse your swimsuit in cold water immediately after a swim in the ocean or a chlorinated pool. But in reality, your suit probably sat in a wet pile and is now stiff and smelly.

Dip your suit in several times. If the fabric is stained, or the smell is really rank, soak it in the mixture overnight.

Don’t wring the suit out; just pat dry with a towel and hang it on a wooden drying rack. If you’re using non-toxic detergent, there’s no need to rinse.

13. To salvage a swimsuit, Rutherford recommends a solution of one gallon of water and ½ cup white vinegar. Dip your suit in the solution, then rinse in cold water. Soak it for a minute or two in the solution if need be, but if you leave it in longer, the vinegar could damage the suit’s delicate fabric.

Laundry ListFollow these quick tips to keep your laundry clean and fresh, no matter how hard you play.

Bright On14. To brighten white linens, add 1/4 cup of lemon juice to the wash cycle, and launder as usual in warm water. For best results, hang them to dry outside: the sun will increase the whitening effect.

15. Imus recommends using a cup of vinegar added to the wash can keep colors bright. (Caution: Don’t use vinegar if you are using bleach; the resulting fumes are hazardous.)

Product PicksOrganic and natural cleaning products are competitively priced. But even if you do pay a little more, it’s worth the extra dollar to protect your clothes, your family and the planet, Rutherford says. Our favorite brands:

-Ecover (ecover.com), founded in Belgium, is the world’s largest producer of ecological cleaning products. Try Ecover’s Ecological Stain Remover ($3.35 for 6.8 ounces) made from biodegradable, plant-based ingredients and packaged in a recyclable container. The site lists online and retail merchants.

- The Laundress (TheLaundress.com) is a luxury fabric care and specialty detergent line whose products come in pretty Victorian bottles. All the ingredients are biodegradable.

- Imus’ GTC Citrus Sage Laundry detergent (ImusRanchFoods.com) works – and 100 % of the profits go to The Imus Cattle Ranch for Kids with Cancer, a working ranch in Ribera, New Mexico.

- The Method Line (MethodHome.com), an environmentally friendly company based in San Francisco, offers products made with naturally-derived, biodegradable ingredients.

How Much Do You Know About Home Remedies?Lemon juice for your whites? Chicken soup for a cold? Holding your breath to halt your hiccups? Friends and family swear by these common cures. But you're not so sure. You've heard all the age-old remedies but can you decipher fact from fiction? Find out how much you really know in this home remedy quiz.